Why did Petrarch search monastic libraries for ancient manuscripts?

Petrarch searched monastic libraries for ancient manuscripts because he was a foundational figure of Renaissance humanism, a movement that prioritized the study of Classical authors over the medieval Scholasticism he considered sterile.12

He believed that Classical culture offered an authentic alternative to the values of his own time and sought to synthesize these ancient ideals with Christian spirituality. By recovering and transcribing "lost" Classical texts—such as the speeches of Cicero he discovered in Liège—Petrarch aimed to turn back to the moral weight and illumination of the Classical world. His efforts were driven by a desire to preserve the continuity between antiquity and the Christian message, establishing a new intellectual framework that emphasized human virtue and self-knowledge.32